Ramyash @ Lal Bahadur v. The State of Uttar Pradesh Etc. Etc & Anr.

Judgment

[2025] 4 S.C.R. 1630 : 2025 INSC 544 Ramyash @ Lal Bahadur v. The State of Uttar Pradesh and Another Etc. Etc. (Criminal Appeal No(s). 1153-55 of 2021) 23 April 2025 [B.R. Gavai* and Augustine George Masih, JJ.] Issue for Consideration Whether the High Court erred in allowing the Correction Application filed under Section 362, CrPC by the accused persons and modifying its earlier judgment by converting the conviction under Section 302 to Section 304 Part II, IPC. Headnotes† Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 – s.362 – Court not to alter judgment – Accused were convicted by the trial court u/ss.302, 323 r/w 34, 452, 504, 506 IPC and sentenced to imprisonment for life – High Court dismissing the criminal appeals thereagainst affirmed the conviction – However, subsequently on a correction application filed by the accused persons u/s.362, CrPC, High Court modified its earlier judgment and converted the conviction u/s.302 to s.304 Part II, IPC – Sustainability: Held: Impugned judgment quashed and set aside – Under s.362, CrPC, once the judgment and final order is signed disposing of a case, no Court is allowed to alter or review the same except to correct a clerical or arithmetical error – High Court while delivering the impugned judgment said that it was only correcting a clerical error however, it can be seen that in the first judgment, the High Court rejected the contention raised on behalf of the appellants therein and confirmed the conviction u/s.302, IPC, but later, the entire reasoning is changed in the impugned judgment – In the impugned judgment, High Court came to a finding that the incident appeared to be a result of a sudden provocation and occurred in the heat of a moment and therefore converted the conviction from s.302, IPC to Part-II of s.304, IPC – Procedure adopted by the High Court was untenable – It was not competent for the High Court to have reviewed its earlier judgment. [Paras 10, 14, 21] * Author [2025] 4 S.C.R.

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